Look to Michigan for solutions to the defining challenges of our time, and for new knowledge that advances human progress. This great public university that is known for interdisciplinary excellence, a spirit of discovery and intellectual rigor, and a commitment to serve the public good has presented a bold vision for what’s next. We call it Vision 2034.
Over the next several years, we will be engaging our worldwide community in supporting this vision through the Look to Michigan campaign. Four major impact areas have emerged from our planning work, with one pillar—education—being the foundation of the other three. We know that Marsal Education has a central role in this campaign because we know that education is inextricably linked to human thriving and the advancement of healthy, just societies.
In this issue of MichiganEducation, we share our priorities for the Look to Michigan campaign and ask that you help us engage others in reimagining how we might look to education for the solutions we seek today and in the future. For years, we have been discussing the need to change the narrative on education, and this campaign offers a unique opportunity to raise up education and educators.
Part of the university’s Vision 2034 is to foster global engagement. In 2024, Marsal faculty, staff, and students traveled internationally for research collaborations, scholarly exchange, and skills development for education practitioners.
This year, I had the opportunity to travel with cross-campus delegations to Taiwan and India. In the spring, the university’s Pan-Asia Alumni Reunion in Taiwan presented a chance to meet with Michigan alumni who are making a difference in the field of education across Asia. In my October trip to New Delhi and Mumbai, my colleagues and I led workshops for teachers, learned about the Indian education system, and explored new partnership opportunities. Finally, we had the pleasure of meeting wonderful alumni from many parts of India at the U-M India Alumni Association event in Mumbai.
Our Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education took a study trip to South Africa. Our graduate students presented at the South African National Resource Centre academic conference, in addition to visiting South African universities, historical sites, and a game reserve. Higher education students made connections with peers and learned from many experts in their field.
Undergraduate students in our English Language Development program had a three-week experience in Cuernavaca, Mexico. Relying on home-stay hosts, students completed coursework, watched teachers employ instructional strategies in their classrooms, and visited historical sites. Through the generosity of a donor to the Marsal School, another undergraduate student spent her summer teaching in a small village in India. These students will soon be teaching in their own classrooms and will bring the perspectives and insights gained through their experiences to their students.
Another exciting development in our effort to extend the reach of Marsal Education is the announcement of our first fully online master’s degree. The first cohort in the online Master of Arts in Leading Educational Innovation and Transformation will begin their degree program in the fall 2025 semester. The curriculum covers learning theories, action research, entrepreneurial leadership, and data-driven improvement to prepare students with the knowledge and skills needed to be strong education leaders, collaborators, and problem solvers.
For the first time in our 103-year history, first-year students were admitted to the Marsal School through our new Bachelor of Arts in Education degree program called Learning, Equity, and Problem Solving for the Public Good (LEAPS). In this issue of Michigan Education, we welcome the 27 students who joined us at the end of August when they moved into their residence hall on the Marygrove Learning Community
campus in Detroit—the site of a robust public-private education partnership. As these students learn at various historical and cultural sites around Detroit and take courses in both Detroit and Ann Arbor, they also help us shape the future of the LEAPS degree program. They are our first cohort, blazing a new path at this great university.
another exciting development in our effort to extend the reach of Marsal Education is the announcement of our first fully online master’s degree.
The curriculum covers learning theories, action research, entrepreneurial leadership, and data-driven improvement to prepare students with the knowledge and skills needed to be strong education leaders, collaborators, and problem solvers.
We also welcomed four new faculty members to the Marsal School this fall. Professors Michael Brown, Walter Ecton, and Demetri Morgan joined the higher education faculty, and Professor Tanya Wright joined the educational studies faculty. These new faculty members are poised to inspire and lead in their fields, enriching our programs with their expertise and dedication to student success.
This year we celebrated Dr. Deborah Loewenberg Ball’s appointment as the Jessie Jean Storey-Fry Distinguished University Professor of Education. Distinguished University Professorships are the highest honor the university bestows upon its faculty. Loewenberg Ball chose to recognize the principal who mentored her as a new teacher at Spartan Village Elementary School in East Lansing, Jessie Jean Storey-Fry. It is a particularly fitting tribute because Loewenberg Ball’s work has had such an impact on the preparation of educators. ■
Front cover: Undergraduate Jessica Neff teaches in Dehradun, India, during a summer internship.
Meet the Marsal Family School of Education’s New Faculty Members
Dean Elizabeth Birr Moje
Editor Danielle Dimcheff
Associate Editor & Lead Writer
Jeanne Hodesh
Contributing Writer
Alli Romano
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Savitski Design, Ann Arbor
Hammond Design, Ann Arbor
We invite you to join the conversation by submitting ideas for future issues, letters to the editor, and class notes. marsal.umich.edu/magazine
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This fall, the Marsal School welcomed four talented scholars to its community
LEAPS Welcomes Its Inaugural Cohort: the Class of 2028
These freshmen make up the first class in the Marsal School’s new major, learning, Equity, and Problem Solving for the Public good
Making Connections Far and Away, Bringing Lessons Home
travel opportunities offer global context to courses and initiatives of the Marsal School
Honoring a Career of Scholarship Based in Practice
deborah loewenberg Ball is appointed the Jessie Jean Storey-fry distinguished university Professor of Education
The Marsal School’s First Online Master of Arts Focuses on Leading Educational Innovation and Transformation
The Michigan association of State universities approved the Marsal School’s first online master’s degree, launching in 2025
For Transformative Education, Look to Michigan
Wherever Wolverines go, progress follows happenings champions for Education class notes
above The Educational Studies program and dije Office hosted “Clayful Creations,” a playful and creative pottery class led by writer and ceramic artist Gabrielle Ione Hickmon.
above Hosted by the CREATE Center, the second annual Youth-Engaged Research Symposium highlighted youth-engaged research partnerships committed to racial and educational justice, and welcomed youth from Kenya, South Sudan, and across Michigan. Featured presenters included youth researchers, community members, U-M faculty, and U-M graduate students.
above and preceding page
The Educational Studies program’s Race and Social Justice Institute hosted Dr. Daniel Solórzano, professor at UCLA and Director of the Center for Critical Race Studies in Education.
above All seniors at The School at Marygrove completed senior capstone projects enacting the design thinking skills they have gained in their engineering courses. The students presented their projects to their peers, community members, and representatives from partner organizations.
left The dijeArt Gallery and Study Hall provided an opportunity to create and view art. Students enjoyed stopping by the art stations and speaking with student and staff artists at the “Seeing the Unseen” Art Gallery Walk.
left The sixth annual James A. Kelly Learning Lever Prize competition was held on April 4, 2024. The winner was Jessica Browning for KidsAi. As generative AI revolutionizes society, KidsAI endeavors to empower kids with essential skills. The platform offers structured learning and critical evaluation tools to navigate AI responsibly. In addition to the grand prize winner, judges presented development awards to four other teams.
above
Two Marsal Education Alumni Award winners, Dr. Andrew Kwok and Dr. Julian Vasquez Heilig, spoke with an audience of current students, faculty, and staff at the Elevating Educators event.
Dean Moje guest conducted the Michigan Marching Band at the U-M football game versus USC.
above The Fall 2024 Community Convocation featured a faculty panel on collaborative research with professors Michael Bastedo, Leslie Rupert Herrenkohl, and Camille Wilson.
above Alumni of the Educator Preparation Program gathered with their peers and friends at the Ann Arbor Summerfest for an event hosted by the Marsal School to celebrate educators.
above Two days before commencement, students and their families were invited to a new graduate celebration hosted by the Office of Alumni Relations and the Office of Student Affairs.
left and below The 2024 Spring Commencement ceremony took place in Hill Auditorium on May 4. The commencement speaker was Stephen Henderson (AB ’92), a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and host of Created Equal, on WDET 101.9FM.
above At the launch of the Eileen Lappin Weiser Center for the Learning Sciences on October 16, guests gathered to talk with Center leaders and committee members, and to hear the keynote address from preeminent scholar Dr. Carol Lee, Professor Emerita, Northwestern University, and President of the National Academy of Education.
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School of Education’s New fa culty Members
This fall, the Marsal School welcomes four talented scholars to its community
Dr. Michael Brown Associate Professor of Higher Education
Dr. Michael Brown (PhD ’17) is a scholar of curriculum development, pedagogy, and instructional technology in undergraduate education. His research integrates theories of learning, socio-technical systems, and higher education organizations. To conduct his research, Brown leverages qualitative and quantitative methods as well as research partnerships to understand influences on students’ academic performance and persistence. He is particularly interested in the influence of students’ social and academic networks which create the structure for their learning interactions, their
time in classrooms, and their time in broader learning communities. His work has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Future of Privacy Forum, and a Transformative Research Grant from the Spencer Foundation.
Brown’s scholarship has been published broadly, with numerous peer-reviewed articles appearing in journals including Review of Higher Education and the Journal of Higher Education, as well as pieces in public scholarship outlets, and in invited book chapters. A dedicated advisor and mentor, he has taught courses at the master’s and doctoral levels focused on research methods, learning and organizational theories, and cultural approaches to the study of higher education. He has been recognized for excellence in teaching and research by the American Educational Research Association Social Studies Special Interest Group and the Society for Learning Analytics Research.
“By offering instructors the tools of social network mapping, we can help them understand how students’ relationships become a key factor in their academic success. Supporting students as they find the supportive resources they need to keep their relational ecologies healthy will, we believe, promote classroom learning.” Michael Brown
Before pursuing his doctoral degree at the University of Michigan, Brown held university staff roles as coordinator of LGBT student involvement and leadership at Washington University in St. Louis and as associate director of the K.C. Potter Center for LGBTQIA+ Life at Vanderbilt University. He returns to his alma mater from the School of Education at Iowa State University, where he served as assistant professor of higher education.
Michigan Education: You received accolades for your use of Open Education Resources (OER) when you were at Iowa State. This is an area of interest to many people as a way to reduce barriers to education, but there is clearly still a lot of work to be done. What do you see as next steps that educators and institutions need to take to make these resources increasingly accessible and useful?
mapping non-traditional pathways
Michael Brown: One key obstacle I’ve observed in research with teacher education candidates is that very few resources exist that help educators, parents, or whoever might be looking for learning resources to make evaluation decisions about the quality of what’s available. We recently proposed the development of online curriculum cooperative platforms where folks can have conversations about what’s working, where the resource falls short, and how they’ve repurposed the tool for different learning environments and communities.
ME: What courses are you teaching at the Marsal School this academic year?
MB: I’m currently teaching Introduction to Education Research for our master’s students in the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education. I’m looking forward to teaching courses on curriculum making, pedagogy, and learning assessment in the coming semesters.
ME: In a recent publication, you and Dr. Rachel Smith use “network mapping” to shed new light on the relationship between campus environments and student development. What were you able to understand about campus ecological networks through the application of network mapping?
MB: The last five years have been a brutal reminder that environmental conditions play a significant role in college student learning and development. When I talk to college instructors, what they often have trouble visualizing is the complex social worlds that students inhabit outside of their classrooms, and how those worlds come to impact what students are doing during class time. By offering instructors the tools of social network mapping, we can help them understand how students’ relationships become a key factor in their academic success. Supporting students as they find the supportive resources they need to keep their relational ecologies healthy will, we believe, promote classroom learning. Network mapping helps faculty and students identify where resources like time, energy, and care should be dedicated.
online curriculum cooperative platforms
Dr. Walter Ecton Assistant Professor of Higher Education
An early-career higher and postsecondary education scholar, Dr. Walter Ecton researches the intersections between high school, higher education, and the workforce, and the pathways students take as they navigate those sectors. His expertise in studying how youth and adults matriculate into and pursue postsecondary education through a lens of diversity, inclusion, justice, and equity is a welcome addition to the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education at the Marsal School.
Ecton’s work primarily focuses on students who take nontraditional pathways through education, with particular focus on high school students in career and technical education, students who attend community colleges, and students who return to education later in life. He aims to produce research that can inform local, state, and federal policy decisions, and that shines a light on the importance of equitable access to high quality educational opportunities for all students.
In addition to publication of journal articles, book chapters, articles, and blogposts that reach broader public audiences, Ecton’s research has been funded by the Institute of Education Sciences,
organizationally sustainable
career and technical education
the Florida Department of Education, the American Educational Research Association-National Science Foundation.
A former high school social studies teacher, Ecton holds a PhD in leadership and policy studies from Peabody College at Vanderbilt University. He joins the faculty at the Marsal School after serving as an assistant professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at Florida State University, where he earned a reputation for being a dedicated advisor and mentor to graduate students, particularly those from diverse backgrounds.
“If we care about education as a tool for reducing inequality in our society, it’s important to recognize that CTE plays an important role in many students’ educational journey. as educators, we need to ensure that students’ CTE experiences are high quality, and that access to the best-quality CTE programs is equitable and just.” Walter Ecton
Michigan Education: In one of your recent studies, you find that 47 percent of Tennessee’s four-year university students and 62 percent of community college students work while enrolled. What do you think institutions could be doing differently to serve these large populations of working students?
Walter Ecton: Traditionally, we’ve often thought about “school” and “work” as two separate stages of life, but this is simply no longer the case for most students. Institutions need to recognize that “working adults” are no longer a niche population on most college campuses; they’re now the norm. We have to be even more thoughtful about designing class schedules that allow for weekend and evening course-taking, providing support services like tutoring that are accessible to students who may not be able to be on campus during business hours, and offering short-term “emergency” financial assistance to students who may be between jobs. Students today are much more than just students. We need policies and support structures that recognize this.
ME: You have engaged in several studies of Career and Technical Education (CTE), which has seen growing enrollment for several decades. Though there is a dearth of research on this important aspect of education, can you share some findings that our alumni might be surprised to learn about the CTE landscape today?
WE: Career and Technical Education was historically (and is sometimes still) called “Vocational Education,” with classes like “shop,” auto repair, construction, or cosmetology perhaps coming to mind. This type of CTE still exists today, and we still need people skilled in those professions, which often can pay quite well, especially for those with advanced training at technical and community colleges. But CTE over the past two decades has dramatically shifted to an increasing focus on applied STEM fields like engineering, healthcare, and IT. In high school, CTE students still largely take a college-preparatory curriculum, and much of the nation’s CTE happens at the postsecondary level. Like with any type of education, there’s still a lot of variation in quality and rigor, but high-quality CTE often sets students up for good-paying career paths. One final thing that might surprise people: most students today (over 80 percent nationally) take at least some CTE classes during their educational career, often as electives!
ME: Why should people care about Career and Technical Education?
WE: All students deserve to leave school with the tools needed to enter a career that pays enough for a decent, comfortable life. While education can and should do so much more, if every student doesn’t end their schooling prepared for a good-paying job, we’ve really failed them. Also, as much as we encourage students to go earn a bachelor’s degree after high school, over half of U.S. students still never earn a bachelor’s degree. We have a moral imperative to help these students (who are disproportionately low-income, racially minoritized, and disabled) prepare for a career. And even for these students, postsecondary education plays an important role. Many students will seek out CTE programs at community and technical colleges, both during and after high school, in addition to later in their career if they need an additional credential or new skill to earn a promotion or change career paths. If we care about education as a tool for reducing inequality in our society, it’s important to recognize that CTE plays an important role in many students’ educational journey. As educators, we need to ensure that students’ CTE experiences are high quality, and that access to the best-quality CTE programs is equitable and just.
Dr. Demetri l. Morgan Associate Professor of Higher Education
Dr. Demetri L. Morgan’s scholarship explores the role that higher education institutions can and should play in a diverse democracy. He seeks to illuminate, in anti-deficit ways, how people navigate, resist, and transform systems, policies, and organizational cultures. He investigates various lines of inquiry, including how student political engagement and activism (re)shape institutions, the impact of governing boards for institutional transformation, and the identification of more organizationally sustainable approaches to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education that enhances social responsibility. Morgan is the co-director of the recently launched Center for Strategic & Inclusive Governance (CSIG) housed at the University of Michigan and the University of California, Riverside and a faculty fellow of the AAUP’s Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom.
Morgan has published numerous peer-reviewed articles in a range of outlets such as The Journal of Higher Education, Higher Education: Handbook of Theory & Research, and Research in Higher Education. Additionally, he has published book chapters and technical reports, and in 2019 coedited the book Student Activism, Politics, and Campus Climate in Higher Education with Dr. Charles H. F. Davis III. Morgan has garnered over $5 million in external grant funding from the National Science Foundation, Dana Foundation, Spencer Foundation, and Lumina Foundation.
“The
pursuit, preservation, and dissemination of knowledge, about all sorts of things, is integral to the project of (re)building a society that works for everyone and is appropriately responsive to the most pressing challenges we face today.” Demetri Morgan
Morgan is a highly sought scholar who has been asked to provide training for university leaders and offer commentary in local, regional, and national news outlets. He has been recognized as a 2021–2023
ACPA-College Student Educators International Emerging Scholar and the winner of the 2018 NASPA Technology Knowledge Community Innovation Award. He has taught a wide range of courses at the graduate and undergraduate levels focused on higher education budgeting and finance, organization and governance, multiculturalism and social justice, and contemporary political issues. In 2018, he was named a finalist for the Faculty of the Year Award at Loyola University Chicago. Morgan joins the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education (CSHPE) at the Marsal School from the School of Education at Loyola University, where he served as an associate professor.
Michigan Education: Why do you believe that postsecondary education is important for democracy?
Demetri Morgan: I understand democracy (or more accurately, though less succinctly, a “plurinational representative republic”) as both a form of governance and a social arrangement that recognizes and safeguards the inalienable rights of individuals and peoples, as articulated in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and many of the founding documents and agreements of the country. However, living in a “democracy” comes with the immense responsibility to collectively “keep it” that way, echoing Benjamin Franklin’s pithy response when asked if the fledgling country was a republic or a monarchy. Keeping a democracy that works for everyone requires an enduring sensitivity to the history and legacy of colonization, displacement, chattel slavery, and the subjugation of groups based on their identities, faith practices, and countries of origin.
Higher education, at its best and uniquely, relative to other pillars of society (e.g., media, faith-based institutions, industry, government), is involved in pursuing, preserving, and disseminating knowledge through teaching. The pursuit, preservation, and dissemination of knowledge, about all sorts of things, is integral to the project of (re) building a society that works for everyone and is appropriately responsive to the most pressing challenges we face today. Therefore, my bet is that the more accessible, effective, and equitable higher education is, the better the chances are that contributions, both great and small, are realized that advance the greater good.
ME: What drew you to join the faculty of the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education at the Marsal School?
science and transformational growth
DM: In every decade since its founding, CSHPE has been at the forefront of shaping higher education through the high-quality education it provides its students, the groundbreaking scholarship produced by its faculty that has informed policy and practice, and its active alumnx community who have gone on to be leaders and luminaries in the field. As the issues facing society evolve, the opportunity to come alongside some of the best students, scholars, and teachers in the country to re-up and expand CSHPE’s legacy was too great to pass up. I am also activated by the broader vision of the Marsal School to really positively impact the full educational lifespan of people, the commitment to serving our surrounding communities, and the chance to shape the future of graduate education.
ME: Activism on U.S. college campuses has a long history. As a scholar, how do you see campus activism evolving?
DM: On the student side of things, the access to a wealth of information and the proliferation of social media have introduced new dimensions to campus activism that are still unfolding. These factors influence how activism is practiced and its impact, as highlighted in my CSHPE colleague Professor Charles Davis’s work.
However, I am increasingly concerned with how some campus leaders and policymakers are responding to activism. There seems to be a lack of recognition of students’ developmental trajectories and the educational potential of these interactions. When responses are transactional and adversarial rather than educational and communal, the opportunity for transformational growth—for students, administrators, alumnx, the institution, and society—is wasted.
If this is the case, we will see activism continue to challenge the status quo and stakeholders will remain at odds, if not doubling down. That is why I believe we would be better served if we viewed activism as a thermometer that reflects the health (or lack thereof) of our social arrangements and remind ourselves that the appropriate response to a thermometer indicating a fever is not to arrest or ignore the thermometer for telling us something we would rather not know. Instead, we should address the underlying causes of the “fever” with our best know-how, good faith, and a commitment to meaningful change through the educational process.
This approach requires us to engage with activism as an opportunity for real cross-cutting dialogue and tangible improvement, rather than as a threat to be suppressed or a nuisance to be endured. By doing so, we can create a more responsive and supportive educational environment that fosters growth for all involved.
An early literacy scholar who studies curriculum and instruction in language and literacy during the early childhood (birth through age eight), Dr. Tanya S. Wright’s (PhD ’11) research focuses on pre-kindergarten through second grade vocabulary and knowledge development and the integration of literacy and science learning for young children. As Wright’s work is driven by a commitment to ensuring equitable access to high-quality literacy instruction, she partners with teachers and children in diverse and under-resourced communities on the creation of culturally relevant materials and methods.
Wright’s research has been published in journals including Reading Research Quarterly and The Elementary School Journal, as well as practitioner-oriented outlets such as The Reading Teacher. She has authored or co-authored five books for teachers and parents including Literacy Learning for Infants, Toddlers, and Preschoolers: Key Practices for Educators (2022), which received the Academic Choice Smart Book Award in 2023, and A Teacher’s Guide to Vocabulary Development Across the Day (2020). She has garnered external funding for her research in grant support from organizations that include the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, the Institute for Education Sciences, the National Science Foundation, and Open-
Dr. Tanya S. Wright Professor of Educational Studies
“Our findings indicated that the quality of literacy instruction was unrelated to modality or to time. In other words, some teachers provided really high-quality instruction even if they were in online or hybrid spaces and only had a short time to work with kids.” Tanya Wright
literacy instruction equitable access
SciEd. In 2022, she received the Jerry Johns Outstanding Teacher Educator in Reading Award.
Wright has taught reading-focused courses at all levels, including reading methods courses and research courses. In addition to the content of her courses, students have praised the scaffolding of Wright’s assignments, and the variety of ways that she presents and invites students to grapple with content, via discussion, writings, and presentations. She is also a dedicated mentor and advisor.
Wright returns to her alma mater from Michigan State University where she was an associate professor with tenure.
Michigan Education: In a lot of your scholarship, you have focused on developing and testing curriculum and professional learning resources focused on supporting integrated literacy and science instruction for K-2 students. Why is that an important focus for the beginning of elementary school?
Tanya Wright: Most people agree that teaching children to read and write is important in the early grades of elementary school, but sometimes science instruction gets pushed out of the curriculum because of this focus on early literacy. So children don’t get any science instruction. This limited time for science is a problem for children’s science education because young children are excited to learn about how the natural and engineered world works. It is also a problem for children’s literacy development because knowledge about the world is very important for text comprehension. As a literacy researcher, I got interested in science because there are so many opportunities for children to build knowledge and vocabulary that will help their literacy development. In my work with my colleague, Dr. Amelia Gotwals at MSU, we have shown that science and literacy instruction don’t need to fight for time in the elementary school day. Instead we can support children’s science learning and meet our goals for early language and literacy development by planning for integrated instruction.
ME: In a recent study published earlier this year, “Understanding K-3 Teachers’ Literacy Instructional Practices During the PandemicImpacted 2020–2021 School Year” published in Reading Research Quarterly, you looked at literacy instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic. What did you find?
DM: It was very difficult for researchers to figure out what was actually happening in schools during the 2020–2021 school year because of safety restrictions preventing observations in classrooms. But there were a lot of assumptions that children received “bad” instruction during this time. Our research team was able to send Swivl technology (a robotic mount, where a tablet or smartphone can be placed to take the video) into 25 classrooms to capture literacy instruction, or we recorded Zoom instruction for fully online situations. Our findings indicated that the quality of literacy instruction was unrelated to modality (virtual, hybrid, or in person) or to time. In other words, some teachers provided really high-quality instruction even if they were in online or hybrid spaces and only had a short time to work with kids. These findings challenge existing theories that all the instruction children received during this time was of poor quality.
ME: What research questions are you eager to pursue here at the Marsal School?
DM: In all of my scholarship, whether I am looking at current instructional practices, policies that impact instruction, new instructional methods, or supports for teachers’ professional learning, I am always interested in figuring out how best to provide equitable opportunities for young children to learn literacy in school. I look forward to continuing my research in this area and also to teaching our wonderful future elementary school teachers at the Marsal Family School of Education. ■
l E a PS Welcomes Its Inaugural Cohort: t he Class of 2028
The incoming freshman make up the first class in the Marsal School’s new major, Learning, Equity, and Problem Solving for the Public Good (LEAPS). LEAPS is a four-year bachelor’s degree in education, designed to prepare students for a wide range of professional careers. It has many unique elements that distinguish it from the traditional undergraduate experience, including an educational approach based upon our best knowledge of how people learn. Here’s what LEAPsters have been up to since they arrived on the scene at U-M.
Move-in Day On a Thursday morning in late August, 27 students hailing from as nearby as Metro Detroit and as far away as Taiwan, moved into freshly renovated dorm rooms in Florent Gillet Hall on the Marygrove campus. Incoming students brought
with them suitcases, mini-fridges, and great anticipation about one of the program’s key features—living and learning in Detroit for their first year of college at the University of Michigan. That evening, Marsal School leadership and faculty who teach in the LEAPS
program, as well as representatives from the P-20 Partnership, community partners, and neighbors attended a barbecue to welcome new students and their families to campus.
all the City a Classroom
The LEAPS curriculum prepares students to become “learning leaders” who know how to partner with peers, communities, and organizations to create change. Visiting sites like the
Detroit Institute of Arts, the Detroit Historical Museum, and the Detroit Riverfront, and learning from Detroiters throughout the city bring these lessons to life. In the City as Identity course taught by LEAPS Program Manager Jay Meeks, students watched the documentary Detroit 48202: ConversationsAlongaPostalRoute, which follows a postal worker along his mail route as he talks to residents about how their community has changed in the decades since the Birwood Wall
was built. Erected in 1941, the wall divided the Black community in the Eight Mile-Wyoming area of Northwest Detroit from Blackstone Park, a newly constructed white subdivision. The six foot wall remains—now covered in murals—a reminder of the redlining that it once enforced. In 2021, the U.S. Parks Service added the wall to the National Register of Historic Places. A focus of Meeks’s course is engaging with the city using primary sources. While visiting the Birwood Wall,
students read an article that was published the year it was built. They also heard from Teresa Moon, a community leader who grew up in the neighborhood, and who still lives in the house her parents bought in 1959. Drawing on the information they had taken in, students then employed the technique of “erasure poetry” to create new verse out of the newspaper article, reflecting the nuanced history they had just learned about.
Outside of Class Students
have spent the fall getting to know the city of Detroit by participating in events like the Detroit Jazz Festival. A shuttle bus that provides transportation to the U-M campus in Ann Arbor has also made it possible for LEAPSters
to partake in student activities, not the least of which are trips to the Big House on Saturdays. Students are also taking part in community-focused activities around the Marygrove campus organized by the Live6 Alliance and local groups like the Marygrove Community Association.
Making Connections Far and Away, Bringing Lessons Home
Travel opportunities offer global context to courses and initiatives of the Marsal School
As leaders in the University of Michigan’s overarching vision to foster increased global engagement, the Marsal School is offering more opportunities for students to study abroad and forging new connections with partners around the world. This year, the Marsal community grew with each trip as travelers learned alongside their hosts, shared knowledge, and built upon a common investment in the future of education.
Cuernavaca
Ann Arbor
Cape Town
Taipei
Dehradun
Mumbai
INDIA
Marsal Student Interns in Indian Village with Support from Educational Scholarship Program
University of Michigan junior Jessica Neff always dreamed of teaching—but never imagined her career would kick off in a small village in India. Neff, a junior in the Marsal Family School of Education, traveled to India in the summer of 2024 as an education intern for the Agency for Non-Konventional Urban and Rural Initiatives (ANKURI), supporting elementaryage students in the foothills of the Himalayan Mountains.
ANKURI is a nonprofit that assists women with education, employment, and skills training in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India. The organization also runs an English teaching assistantship program with interns from the U.S. and India to help children in local schools supplement governmentsupported education, and an afterschool tutoring program to develop their English and literacy skills.
A Chelsea, Michigan native, Neff is studying to be an elementary school teacher. She says she has always loved working with children as a babysitter and camp counselor. She currently teaches in the early childhood program at the YMCA in Ann Arbor.
At U-M, Neff wanted to study abroad but couldn’t see how it would fit into her two-year intensive Marsal program— until she saw a flyer for a six-week summer internship with ANKURI in India.
“What other time would I have the opportunity to go abroad and do something I am passionate about?” recalls Neff, who applied hours after seeing the post.
Her experience included a significant bonus: It was funded by the Kelley Rea and Mary Jean Jecklin Scholarship. Rea is an LSA and Michigan Law graduate, and Jecklin graduated from Clarke College (now Clarke University) in Dubuque, Iowa. The couple are world travelers—they were named National Geographic’s 2012 Travelers of the Year.
While traveling in India, they met with a guide named
Rachna Dushyant Singh, who founded ANKURI to develop sustainable livelihoods for women in the Dehradun region. Singh needed assistance bringing female teachers to support local children.
Rea and Jecklin were so impressed with Singh’s work that they offered scholarships for American interns from Michigan and Clarke. The scholarships cover airfare, visas, room and board, and weekend excursions Singh leads to sites, including the Taj Mahal.
They estimate between 15 and 20 students have received scholarships over the last ten years.
“The world is a great big place, and my goal is to help these young women expand their understanding, appreciation, and knowledge of other places,” Jecklin says.
Rea added that American teaching interns like Neff push themselves to work in distant, unfamiliar environments. “These are university students who are smart, able, and challenged,” he noted.
When Neff traveled to India, it was her first major trip abroad and her first solo flight. Upon arrival, she says she was both electrified and overwhelmed. The Indian students were curious and eager, but most spoke little—if any—English. The rural setting presented unique challenges, too. In the U.S., Neff is accustomed to accessing technology like smart boards and iPads and using books and games with children; in Dehradun, she had to get creative.
“I used songs to help with memorization, we went outside to talk about colors, and we created card games on paper,” she says. “I had to practice working with limited resources.”
Neff created daily lesson plans for her students, dividing them by skill level, but learned she often had to pivot. Her first-grade class shared a room with second and third grade, so Neff sometimes moved her students to the hall or outside for a quieter environment. Even her class roster was fluid: some days, 10 students attended, but other days, she only had two students.
“I learned things will not always go as planned, and that’s okay. I needed to have plans to fall back on,” she says, adding that this skill will be helpful with future classrooms.
The internship also offered Neff a cultural experience she craved. Along with two other interns from Clarke University,
Neff took a class photo with her students in their school in Dehradun, India.
Neff helped students with their lessons by using techniques like singing songs together.
Neff stands in the courtyard of the Government Primary School Galjwadi where she taught.
Neff lived with Singh and her family and ate three meals daily with them. She said they all became very close. On weekends, Singh arranged sightseeing excursions.
“I experienced a different way of life. They were so welcoming,” Neff says.
Singh, in particular, left a lasting impression.
“As a young woman, seeing this mentor and the wonderful things she’s done for her community was amazing. She has so much knowledge. She made the experience,” Neff says.
Neff keeps in regular contact with Singh and the Clarke University interns. Her experience is precisely the enriching personal and professional immersion Rea and Jecklin hoped to foster with their scholarship.
“In addition to hoping the internships in India have a lifelong influence on the individual students, I hope each one will transmit their interest in India and other cultures and countries to the students they work with throughout their teaching career,” Jecklin says.
Marsal School Brings Educators Together at the 2024 Pan-Asia Alumni Reunion
In May, representatives from the Marsal Family School of Education attended U-M’s Pan-Asia Alumni Reunion in Taipei, Taiwan. The universitywide reunion brought together over 500 alumni with an interesting range of backgrounds and career accomplishments, all united by the Block M and an unwavering commitment to shape a positive future for people around the world.
Dean Elizabeth Birr Moje hosted a dinner for U-M alumni and friends engaged in the field of education, and was thrilled to connect with many Marsal School alumni. In the words of one dinner attendee, “I’m so proud of the educational spirit at my alma mater and so privileged to be a part of this community.”
Taiwan
Moje met with U-M alumnus and current Deputy Minister of Education for Taiwan, Ping-Cheng (Benson) Yeh (PhD ’05). Yeh is a faculty member in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the National Taiwan University and an innovator in the educational gaming space.
Other alumni shared their fascinating work in higher education mathematics instruction, teacher evaluation, experiential learning trips for students, and digital education spaces (for which the alumna uses her U-M certificate in Learning Experience Design). The Marsal School’s influence—and that of its alumni—is positively impacting people across the globe.
The dean also had the opportunity to meet one of the incoming students in the Marsal School’s first cohort of undergraduates in the Learning, Equity, and Problem Solving for the Public Good (LEAPS) bachelor’s degree program. Three months before the program even started, Moje and the student, Kyra Han, got to share their excitement about the new program’s unique curriculum centering human learning as an area of expertise that is currently under-leveraged across industry and society.
U-M’s next Pan-Asia Reunion will be hosted in Hong Kong on May 16 and 17, 2025.
Dean Elizabeth Birr Moje with Valeria Bertacco, Vice Provost, Engaged Learning, Office of the Provost, and Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, College of Engineering; Benson Yeh (PhD ’05), Deputy Minister of Education for Taiwan; Christine Muchanic, Senior Director, Research Relations, College of Engineering at the U-M Pan-Asia Alumni Reunion in Taipei, Taiwan.
mexico
of English proficiency. Over and over again, the teaching interns on the trip expressed how they could now understand and relate to what it’s like to be in an environment where one doesn’t speak the dominant language. Based on their own language learning experience, they kept reflecting on how much empathy was required, how much patience, and the importance of wait time.”
The English Language Development Program Studies Abroad in Mexico
In May, Susan Atkins, lead faculty member for the Marsal School’s English Language Development (ELD) program, led students on a three-week trip to Cuernavaca, Mexico. There, 13 undergraduate students participated in Spanish language immersion, homestays with local families, cultural activities, and field trips, while completing U-M coursework toward earning Michigan’s ESL endorsement.
The inaugural trip, which was made possible by a FacultyLed Education Abroad Program Grant from the University of Michigan’s Global Engagement Team, encouragement from Dean Moje, and a relationship Atkins had established with Azteca Total Immersion Center (ATIC), prompted new interest in the ELD certification among undergraduates. Riley Nieboer, who is majoring in elementary education, had planned to minor in Spanish but switched her course of study to pursue the ELD certification and travel to Mexico instead. In the future, she hopes to teach in a Spanish-speaking country. “This was the perfect opportunity to equip me to reach that goal,” she says.
In the morning, students took two hours of Spanish language study, followed by class with Atkins. “This program is part of the certification that students do to get an additional endorsement in English as a Second Language for the state of Michigan,” says Atkins. “These students do the ELD coursework in preparation to receive and teach students with varied levels
The cohort’s days were organized around sobremesa (“at the table”), a midday meal that Atkins says is important to Mexican family culture. At 2 p.m., students went to their respective homestay families for sobremesa to share food and spend time together for several hours.
“I got to know my family really well just from the time we would spend sitting and talking together after lunch,” says Nieboer. “I feel more confident now going into situations with native speakers because I’ve had the experience of living with a family where our only communication was in Spanish.”
While in Cuernavaca, the cohort also visited a local elementary and secondary school. Nieboer was struck by the teachers’ use of call and response—a technique she hasn’t seen employed very often in U.S. classrooms. Debriefing afterward with her fellow teaching interns, she observed how engaged all the students seemed to be because of their collective participation.
Another teaching intern told Atkins she was struck by the “profound connectedness” of Mexican families. This will shape how she thinks about the students and families she eventually welcomes into her own classroom. “Now she has a deeper understanding of what it means for a family to leave Mexico, and how that might impact the way they engage in a school system where perhaps they don’t feel comfortable or invited. When I heard the intern explaining that to me, I felt such a sense of satisfaction. Besides being in the country and living with families, there really is no other way I could have taught that.”
From a recruitment standpoint, Atkins is thrilled to see how the lure of traveling abroad has bolstered interest in the ELD program. “We took 13 students, which means we have a whole new group of interns who will now have this endorsement and be prepared to teach in this way.”
Marsal School students pose with a Block M banner outside their classroom at the Azteca Total Immersion Center in Cuernavaca, Mexico.
Right: The cohort of Marsal students visited local elementary and secondary schools while in Cuernavaca.
Above: Marsal School classes taught in-country by Atkins prepared students to receive their English Language Development endorsement.
South African Experiential Journey Delivers Professional and Cultural Enrichment for Higher Education Students
WIn a final reflection assignment, students shared observations that will stay with them long after they return home.
Anticipating a career in teaching, one intern wrote: “I am incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity to study in Mexico and know this experience will continue to offer me new insights as a teacher in the future. I now envision my work with a different lens, and [this trip] has made me so excited to start my career.”
On visiting schools in Mexico, another intern said that “students are often free to move around the classroom when needed. Discipline wasn’t needed as students were still actively engaged. I also noticed that family lunch at home is prioritized, resulting in school days lasting around 4-5 hours per day.”
Remarking on the experience of learning Spanish and living in a Spanish-speaking community, an intern wrote, “I can now empathize with newcomer students and their frustration to make friends because I have experienced [that frustration] myself. It takes so much patience from both sides to have even a simple conversation. It can be hard to have that much patience and find someone with that patience. It is simply easier to communicate with others and build that bond with people who you can communicate effectively with. I can understand why a student may not speak or may start crying when being spoken to because it is so overwhelming to not understand what the other person is saying.”
Reflecting on the experience of learning to communicate across cultures and through two languages, for undergraduate student Rosie Sanchez the program was best summed up in verse:
Mexicana hermosa, Gracias por todo,
For all that you give me.
For the beautiful words
That my tongue speaks freely.
For the blood in my veins
That I share with your country.
Gracias por la tierra That I lay on peacefully. Sufriste mucho, Pero you still stand tall. Gracias, For being the reminder of my own strength.
hen graduate students in the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education (CSHPE) traveled to South Africa last summer, it offered them a window into higher education and students’ lives—and challenges—in another country. They soaked up sights and history and studied the impact of the apartheid system on South Africa’s education system, culture, and communities.
“We explore some very serious issues during these study programs. Sometimes, what we encounter can be jarring or unsettling. I want students to be unsettled, but I also want them to come away having witnessed the resilience and indelible spirit of the local folks we are visiting,” says Melinda Richardson, managing director of CSHPE, who oversees the annual experiential learning travel experiences.
Richardson says travel opportunities bring a lasting impact to Marsal students. “I want them to care and hope. I want them to come back to U-M changed by this experience. And, ultimately, I want them to take what they learned and make positive change happen.”
During the summer of 2024, Richardson and Assistant Professor Charles H. F. Davis III co-led a group of 13 master’s and doctoral students to South Africa. They visited campuses, took in iconic sights, and enjoyed intimate conversations with South African students, educators, and campus leaders. They also presented their research on first-year student experiences at an academic conference.
“It is a really special place because it has so many comparatives to U.S. higher education context,” Richardson says. She took a previous group of students to South Africa in 2017.
CSHPE offers annual experiential study programs, typically alternating between international and domestic destinations. Students have recently traveled to Chile, England, and San Francisco, and next year’s tour will visit New Mexico.
This year’s South Africa group participated in a winter 2024 independent study seminar with Davis to prepare, including a deep dive into South Africa’s history. Additionally, Davis helped the participants prepare for the South African National Resource Centre (SANRC) First-Year Experience. “We did readings about the apartheid system, how it affected the education system and the efforts made to transform and improve it in the post-apartheid world, and comparisons to the U.S. and Jim Crow, and experiences in this country,” Davis says.
Outside of class, there was time to sightsee—including climbing the pyramids of Teotihuacan.
Davis had previously visited South Africa, but the Marsal School trip was his first experience in an academic and professional context. “I was excited to see what it looked like in contrast to everyday living I had experienced in South Africa and to get a better understanding contextually of how these institutions were different from one another and how they paralleled some of the structures we’ve seen in the U.S., given they too were a post-apartheid nation 30 years later than we were,” he says.
The trip was chock-full of academic, historical, and cultural exchanges. The group visited important historical sites, including the National Apartheid Museum; Robben Island, a notorious prison where Nelson Mandela and other political prisoners were held; and the District Six Museum, which chronicles the history of a district of Cape Town that was formerly racially mixed until Black residents were forcibly resettled during apartheid.
Students visited four South African universities, including the University of Cape Town, the University of the Western Cape, Nelson Mandela University (George campus), and the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg (also known as Wits). During these visits, they met South African students, gaining insight into the country’s institutions and the impacts of racial and socioeconomic inequities.
“It was great as an educator to see the enlightenment and experiences that our students were having, none of whom had been to South Africa before and many of whom were Black students who had never been to the continent,” Davis notes. “There was amazing work happening all over the country.”
The SANRC academic conference was a centerpiece of the trip. For many, it was their first time meeting other scholars at an academic conference. Marsal students presented their research, took in colleagues’ presentations, and met academics from around South Africa and other countries.
“Our students worked hard and did a masterful job holding the room to speak about first-year experience in the U.S. context, attended sessions, and engaged with practitioners during lunch and social hours,” Davis recalls.
He adds: “There was a particular awakening to put their feet on the motherland and find parts of themselves through these cultural practices, whether the places we ate, the dances we learned, the conversations we had, and the shared experience across the diaspora. That was really tremendous.”
Richardson applauds the Marsal students for delivering strong presentations and capably fielding questions. “This is thanks to the knowledge and classroom experiences U-M students receive as part of their educational preparation,” she notes.
While academic insights and contextualization provided the backbone of the trip, Richardson said visiting tourist attractions and having fun are essential to successful travel.
She prioritizes leaving city centers, and instead visiting towns and villages and meeting locals. In Langa Township, the group stopped for lunch at Mzansi, a family-owned and -operated restaurant.
“By the end of our time at the restaurant (which is actually someone’s house), students were playing musical instruments and literally dancing in the street,” she says. “My favorite moments are those when students simply get to share space with our local hosts and fellow students.”
Far from the classroom, the group visited the Gondwana Game Reserve and, during two game drives, learned the distinctions between public and privately operated reserves and the role these entities play in the South African economy, the conservation of native habitats, and preservation of endangered species. In Cape Town, they journeyed to the top of the famed Table Mountain on an aerial tram and shopped for souvenirs in Greenmarket Square.
As she designed the trip, Richardson leaned into past experiences, local contacts, and Marsal alums. She had invited South African student organizers to collaborate virtually on Marsal BLM Week of Action programming in 2020. Also, the 2017 trip inspired some of the 2024 group’s activities. For instance, on the first visit, Richardson met Vusi Mchunu, a then-student protester who served on a panel during the group’s visit to the University of Witwatersrand. She stayed in touch, and Vusi, now a teacher outside of Johannesburg, offered to guide the group on its final day.
South Africa
The CSHPE cohort attended the South African National Resource Centre’s annual First Year Experience and Students in Transition conference, held in the Johannesburg suburb of Sandton.
“It was a special full-circle moment for me to watch Vusi— a young, proactive South African education professional— help a new group of U-M students contextualize their visit to Soweto, Yeoville, and the Apartheid and Hector Pierson museums,” Richardson says.
Whenever possible, she taps into Marsal’s vast alumni network worldwide. “Any time I can engage alumni, it enriches the experience so much more,” she says. That connection led the 2024 group to the George Campus of Nelson Mandela University. The campus principal, Kaluke Mawila (PhD ’09), earned her doctorate in higher education at Marsal. She warmly welcomed two Marsal student groups to South Africa. In 2017, she shared research initiatives in South Africa with the group and hosted this year’s group at the George Campus.
Mawila helped organize a day of learning with George Campus leaders, faculty, and students. Several Marsal students and faculty participated in panels on critical topics, such as student debt, student life, and effectively leading multi-campuses. Richardson said these issues resonate with both U.S. and South African students.
“She knocked it out of the park,” Richardson says of Mawila. “She leveraged the day so that our being there helped her campus, and we had to bring something to the table. It was very reciprocal.”
On that visit to the George Campus, Marsal student Raul Gamez shared insights on multi-campus management when George students started asking George administrators questions about student debt, fees, and protections for LGBTQ+ students. Gamez said he learned that it is unusual for South African students to have access to their school leaders, and the gathering presented a rare opportunity.
“That was very brave of the students, and it was a clear display of student advocacy and activism,” said Gamez, a higher education doctoral student with an organizational behavior and management concentration. “They were not going to miss opportunities to ask the administration about their needs, which was very powerful for me.”
Gamez and other CSHPE students documented their experiences on a blog, sharing rich details of their daily adventures and impressions.
Master’s student Dani Williams wrote about the group’s visit to the Apartheid Museum. Williams says she joined the trip to connect with South African students and learn about another higher education system, and the experience exceeded her expectations.
“Table Mountain was incredible. Connecting with NMU students was a special treat. The presentations at UCT were great. The Apartheid Museum was sobering and eye-opening,” says Williams, who is concentrating on diversity and social justice in higher education.
Williams is exploring options to continue her studies as a graduate student at Wits or the University of Cape Town.
“I am interested in learning about the experiences of Black, trans students on these campuses and if there are parallels across national borders,” she says.
That curiosity and inquisitiveness is precisely why Richardson hopes more students participate in Marsal’s experiential learning opportunities.
“There are so many wonderful things that a classroom education can offer but applying that learning and challenging your own personal assumptions by engaging with others in a real space is truly a unique opportunity,” she says. “It prepares them to be better higher education professionals—more compassionate administrators, more critical researchers, more thoughtful faculty.”
Marsal School Delegation Visits Schools and Teachers in India
In October, Dean Elizabeth Birr Moje, professors Angela Calabrese Barton and Chris Torres, and Marsal Director of Development and Alumni Relations Krissa Rumsey traveled to India to host a day of workshops on Democracy and Agency in Education, which were held in Mumbai. Over the course of a week, the delegation visited both New Delhi and Mumbai with the goals of learning about the Indian education system and exploring opportunities for partnership.
Starting in New Delhi, Marsal representatives met with Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi Manish Sisodia and members of his team at the Sarvodaya Vidyalaya Government Co-Ed School, where teachers are implementing project- and placebased learning. The meeting was arranged by Reena Gupta, the spouse of a U-M alum, who serves as an advisor to Delhi’s
At Mzansi, a restaurant in Langa Township, students experienced South African culture through music, food, and generous hospitality.
The group visited important historical sites, including the National Apartheid Museum.
Torres and Moje visit a classroom at the Hasanat School in Mumbai.
Minister of Environment. Gupta told the Marsal group that the union territory’s current political administration—led by members of the Aam Aadmi Party—is making investments in education like never before. She was excited to show visitors from U-M what a government-funded school looks like when such a commitment is made.
At the Shiv Nadar School, a private institution, visitors from Marsal Education were given a tour by members of the senior class—including some who are applying to U-M! Innovation and entrepreneurship are emphasized throughout the school’s education goals. The school also offers an International Baccalaureate track.
“The students told us about their capstone projects. One has an interest in music, and developed a wellness app to provide music therapy. Another student had developed a sensor to detect levels of methane in trash, which can contribute to dangerous fires. It sounds an alarm to the local fire department when levels get too high,” says Rumsey. The group came away from the tour with many ideas for potential collaboration, including connecting students at Shiv Nadar with those at The School at Marygrove.
Another goal of the trip was to explore opportunities with learning leaders and organizations that fund education in India. While in New Delhi, the group met with Geeta Goel at the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation India LLP. Goel is the managing director for the foundation’s India operations, which serve to transform the lives of urban low-income communities through improved education, livelihoods, and financial inclusion. The foundation supports numerous educational initiatives in India to provide greater opportunities for students and teachers, including a recent project that involved training teachers through WhatsApp.
In Mumbai, professors Calabrese Barton and Torres led workshops for teachers from across the city at the Democracy and Agency in Education Workshop, held at the Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum. Calabrese Barton’s presentation, “Science and Democracy: Teaching for Social Justice and STEM
Agency,” explored how democracy and agency play out in science education. In his presentation, “Democratizing Teachers’ Professional Learning: Instructional Rounds,” Torres introduced the concept of instructional rounds and how they are used to make teacher evaluation a more democratic process.
The group was hosted by Calabrese Barton’s former student, Purvi Vora, who, along with her colleague Sangita Kapadia, founded Reniscience. Reniscience is an education consulting firm and think tank born out of a desire to promote learning that is empowering, joyful, and relevant to the 21st-century learner. In addition to the workshops, Vora and Kapadia arranged visits to schools they partner with across the city, including Shikha Academy, the Hasanat School, and the DN Nagar School.
A key component of the trip was an event hosted by the University of Michigan India Alumni Association featuring remarks by Dean Moje and Dean Jonathan Massey from the A. Alfred Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. Moje spoke about U-M’s Vision 2034, which kicks off a new focus on global education by working with alumni.
“We’re excited to partner with people on campus to extend the visibility of the Marsal School around the world,” says Moje.
“Thank you to Ravi Pendse, the university’s vice president for information technology and chief information officer, and to our colleagues at the Taubman School for their collaboration on this trip. The Office of International Giving was invaluable in helping us forge connections in India, especially Brodie Remington, executive director, International Giving; Eun Ja Yu, senior director, International Giving and Engagement; and Gayatri Penmetsa, director, International Giving and Engagement. And my deepest gratitude to the U-M India Club for hosting us in Mumbai. Together, we are building partnerships that engage the whole globe while serving the Michigan community, in service of Vision 2034 goals to engage education communities globally.” ■
india
Below: Members of the Marsal School received a warm welcome from the University of Michigan India
Left: Moje speaks with Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi, Manish Sisodia.
Below: Torres delivers a workshop on instructional rounds at the Democracy and Agency in Education convening in Mumbai.
Top: Calabrese Barton engages with students at the Hasanat School in Mumbai.
Right: The Marsal School delegation and hosts Purvi Vora, Sangita Kapadia, and Jonathan Mendonca gather outside the Shikha Academy in Mumbai.
Alumni Association.
Honoring a Career of Scholarship Based in Practice
deborah loewenberg Ball is appointed the
Jessie Jean Storey-Fry distinguished university Professor of Education
decades before Dr. Deborah Loewenberg Ball was the dean of U-M’s School of Education or the president of the American Educational Research Association or the recipient of more than a dozen awards and honors for contributions to mathematics education, she was a teacher at Spartan Village Elementary School in East Lansing. It was there that she learned foundational lessons about teaching and leadership from her mentor, Dr. Jessie Jean Storey-Fry.
Storey-Fry served as Loewenberg Ball’s school principal at Spartan Village Elementary School for more than a decade when Loewenberg Ball first became an elementary teacher. As a teacher, Loewenberg Ball benefited greatly from StoreyFry’s kind but firm leadership. The things she taught Loewenberg Ball about teaching—about its power, its imperative to leverage the assets of students and their families, and its capacity to create strong academic identities in young children—were crucial to Loewenberg Ball’s development not only as an elementary teacher but also as a scholar, researcher, and teacher educator.
Storey-Fry was the first Black woman to serve as principal at Spartan Village, and went on to become the first Black woman to hold a central administrator role in East Lansing Public Schools. She had more than 40 years of teaching and administration experience in public schools, including as a principal, director of elementary education, central office administrator, and adjunct professor at Michigan State University. This year, when U-M bestowed its highest faculty honor on Loewenberg Ball, appointing her Distinguished University Professor, she chose to recognize the principal who had shaped and inspired her.
On September 1, 2024, Loewenberg Ball was appointed the Jessie Jean Storey-Fry Distinguished University Professor of Education. The title recognizes her outstanding scholarly achievements, commitment to excellence in education for her students, and extensive contributions to the University of Michigan and beyond.
Those who read her work, collaborate with her, or participate in the learning opportunities offered by TeachingWorks, the organization she founded and directs, benefit from her unique approach to education scholarship.
Loewenberg Ball brought more than 15 years of elementary teaching experience with her into academia. After earning her PhD, she spent eight years on the faculty at Michigan State University’s College of Education before joining the University of Michigan School of Education faculty in 1996. In 2000, she was named an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor in recognition of her outstanding contributions to undergraduate education. In 2005, she was appointed the William H. Payne Collegiate Professor in Education and began an 11-year period as dean of the School of Education, now the Marsal Family School of Education.
Loewenberg Ball’s work is grounded in the study of practice, using elementary mathematics as a critical context for investigating the challenges of helping children develop understanding and agency and how to work collectively, and on leveraging the power of teaching to disrupt patterns of injustice.
Her pioneering concept of “public teaching” created a method to expose the practice of teaching to rigorous empirical and conceptual study in pursuit of “practicebased theory.” For more than 20 years, Loewenberg Ball’s Elementary Mathematics Laboratory (EML) has educated children in math and served as a unique context for educators, mathematicians, policymakers, and the public to observe and discuss the complexity of teaching and learning.
She has worked with mathematicians, teachers, and mathematics educators to identify the specialized mathematical knowledge needed for teaching, and showed its relationship to and difference from disciplinary mathematical knowledge. The resulting theory of “mathematical knowledge for teaching” is now a foundational concept in the field of mathematics education.
Loewenberg Ball’s research has also provided important insights into the ways that inequity and oppression regularly pervade normative teaching practice, and how teacher education and development could help disrupt this. She is currently researching the relationships among broader sociopolitical environments and the microdynamics of classrooms, revealing what she has termed “discretionary spaces”: how teachers’ everyday practices are permeated with habits of action and inaction, judgments, and decisions that shape the work of teaching and students’ experience in powerful ways, positively and also harmfully.
Loewenberg Ball’s commitment to “practice-based theory” means that she is quintessentially a teacher in all her work. In addition to teaching elementary children every summer at the EML, she regularly teaches teacher education courses, graduate courses in education foundations and policy, and courses for students across the university with an interest in education. In addition to the Thurnau Professorship, Loewenberg Ball also received recognition for her skillful teaching with an Excellence in Teaching Award from the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators.
the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Michigan State University College of Education; and two outstanding article awards, including the Palmer O. Johnson Award from AERA. She is the most highly cited author worldwide in mathematics education research and is an author of the two most-cited articles in mathematics education.
Loewenberg Ball’s service to the education field was also recognized by Teachers College, Columbia University, which awarded her its Medal for Distinguished Service. She served as President of the American Educational Research Association (AERA); Chair of the
For more than 20 years, Loewenberg Ball’s Elementary Mathematics Laboratory (EML) has educated children in math and served as a unique context for educators, mathematicians, policymakers, and the public to observe and discuss the complexity of teaching and learning.
Her contributions have been formally recognized by many institutions and organizations. She is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Education, and is a fellow and past president of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) and a fellow of the American Mathematical Society. She received the Felix Klein Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Mathematics Education Research from the International Commission on Mathematical Instruction—the highest honor worldwide in mathematics education; the Louise Hay Award for Outstanding Contributions to Mathematics Education from the Association of Women in Mathematics; the Edward Pomeroy Award for Outstanding Contributions to Teacher Education from the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education;
Spencer Foundation Board of Trustees; and Member of the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute Board of Trustees, and Chair of its Education Advisory Committee. She was twice appointed (by presidents Obama and Biden) a Member of the National Science Board; was appointed Chair of the Michigan Council for Educator Effectiveness by Governor Snyder; and was appointed a Member of the Presidential National Mathematics Advisory Panel by thenSecretary of Education Margaret Spellings. All of Loewenberg Ball’s career milestones and accolades grew from a deep commitment to the study of practice that was launched in her classroom at Spartan Village Elementary School. As an educator, researcher, and mentor, she continues to share her passion for the critical work of exploring teaching and learning. ■
The Marsal School’s First Online Master of Arts Focuses on Leading Educational Innovation and Transformation
The Michigan association of State universities approved the Marsal School’s first online master’s degree, launching in 2025
On October 18, 2024, the Michigan Association of State Universities (MASU) approved the first fully online master’s degree offered by the Marsal School. Beginning with the fall 2025 semester, the Master of Arts in Leading Educational Innovation and Transformation will make a degree from the Marsal Family School of Education accessible to more students than ever before.
“Upon completion of the Masters of Arts in Leading Educational Innovation and Transformation, students will experience momentous growth in their habits of thinking and analysis, allowing for the design and implementation of new educational environments where everyone is valued, belongs, and is an active part of problem solving.” Maria Coolican
“With our first fully online master’s degree,” says Dean Elizabeth Birr Moje, “we are creating greater access to the faculty in our world-renowned school, while leveraging our expertise in creating rich and deep online learning experiences to reach students everywhere. The focus on innovation
and transformation is aligned with our commitment to using research to continuously improve education. For example, education leaders who pursue this degree will be equipped with skills to navigate the rapidly changing landscape of education technology tools such as AI with attention to equity and justice for all learners.”
The program is designed to offer current teachers and those involved in schools or other education-centered organizations an opportunity to accelerate their careers by becoming school leaders and educational leaders in various settings. Because these learners may not be able to leave their current jobs in Michigan, or around the country, to attend classes in Ann Arbor, Marsal School faculty members have worked closely with U-M’s Center for Academic Innovation (CAI) to develop a rich learning experience that can be accessed virtually, with numerous opportunities for interaction between students and professors.
This master’s degree embodies a commitment to explore, cultivate, and implement innovative ideas and strategies designed to fundamentally shift the current educational landscape. The curriculum emphasizes fostering creativity and adaptability, improving learning outcomes, and addressing the complex challenges facing education today. Each learner participating in the program will engage deeply with these ideas, tailoring their learning to their unique environments, supported by the continuous guidance and encouragement of Marsal School faculty. The program will focus on blending practice, research, and empowerment to develop the next generation of exceptional and justice-centered educators.
The comprehensive curriculum allows learners to actively engage in transformation and innovation through a justice-centered lens, says program designer and Clinical Associate Professor Maria Coolican. The program centers the Marsal School’s
dije values of diversity, inclusion, justice, and equity in numerous ways.
“We can’t expect our students to engage with dije if we as faculty don’t model the way,” Coolican says. “So we challenge ourselves to have courageous conversations and to embrace the discomfort that can sometimes emerge from those conversations. We challenge ourselves to be present to the inequities that exist in our communities and in our schools and in other educational settings, and we further challenge ourselves to continue to work toward transformation and change in those same settings. We look both inward and outward as we examine our own histories and behaviors, and we commit to doing better—much better. Those in our master’s program in Leading Educational Innovation and Transformation will be challenged to do the same.”
Four foundational courses will provide an understanding around leading for transformation and understanding how people learn; three courses focus on continuous improvement; and a capstone course challenges students to apply learning that will impact their school environment.
The courses themselves will feature recorded lectures, readings, participation on discussion boards, and writing reflection pieces. Independent and collaborative assignments like projects, papers, and research will also be incorporated. All courses scaffold on one another with a common thread of building toward the capstone project.
In total, the program is 24 credits, earned by completing eight 3-credit courses. Each course is seven weeks long. Students will complete two courses per 15-week semester so that the degree can be completed in four academic terms. Students will complete these courses with their cohort; new cohorts begin in August, January, and May of each year. ■
STUDENTS
Actionable Leadership
• Capstone
Continuous
Improvement Leadership
• Data Driven Decision Making
• Transformative Instructional Practice
• Leading Effective Collaboration
Innovation and Transformational Leadership
• Action Research
• Entrepreneurial Leadership
TEACHERS & STAFF LEADERS
Foundational Leadership
• Foundations for Leading
• How People Learn
COMMUNITY & STAKEHOLDERS
Explore the Curriculum
Foundations for Leading provides a comprehensive overview of the historical, theoretical, and philosophical foundations that have shaped today’s educational systems and processes.
How People Learn is a foundational course in learning theories and their educational applications. Students examine learning from the perspective of educational justice and equity, always seeking to understand how power, privilege, oppression, and resistance impact learners, learning contexts, and pedagogies.
Action Research empowers individuals to become scholarly practitioners who can effectively use action research to drive transformation and foster innovation within educational settings.
Entrepreneurial Leadership is designed to develop the entrepreneurial mindset and skills essential for leading innovation in educational settings. Emphasis is placed on the evolving landscape of education with a focus on the methodologies of entrepreneurial leadership. Data-Driven Decision Making is designed for students to explore and understand the critical role of data in leading educational transformation and driving innovation in schools and other educational settings. Students will understand
the essential principles of assessment literacy, including how to collect, analyze, and interpret data accurately.
Transformative Instructional Practices focuses on the innovative principles of collaboration, distributed leadership, inquiry, and cultural competence, which are essential to instructional leadership. This course is designed to build skills that empower students to build trusting collegial relationships, fostering a growth mindset and strengthening collective efficacy.
Leading Effective Collaboration examines the essential and often overlooked aspect of data-driven improvement: that effective leaders distribute leadership by building capacity in staff (and often in volunteers). This course takes an intimate look at how to facilitate effective teacher and employee collaboration, particularly as it relates to analyzing data to inform instruction.
The Capstone is a professional learning experience and is the required culminating experience for the program. This capstone course gives students in their final semester an opportunity to discuss topics that are important to their current and future work and aspirations as emerging leaders in the field.
for Transformative Education, Look to Michigan
Vision 2034: The University of Michigan will be the defining public university, boldly exemplified by our innovation and service to the common good. We will leverage our interdisciplinarity and excellence at scale to educate learners, advance society, and make groundbreaking discoveries to impact the greatest challenges facing humanity. Wherever Wolverines go, progress follows.
The University of Michigan publicly launched the Look to Michigan Campaign on October 25, 2024. This campaign will focus on raising the resources to actualize the university’s bold Vision 2034, the result of a collaborative, cross-campus process to articulate the University of Michigan’s aspirations toward tackling urgent challenges, pursuing pioneering solutions, and making a meaningful difference.
The university’s vision for the campaign is organized around four foci: high-quality education for all, health and well-being, sustainability, and democracy. As one of the top institutions studying education, the Marsal School is proving that human progress in any field of study is built upon access to highquality education. The goal of a university, then, must be to use its academic and research
The
missions to make it possible for all to have access to the best learning opportunities.
Marsal School alumna, donor, and member of the Dean’s Advisory Council Stacy Giles (ABEd ’95, TeachCert ’95) is serving as a volunteer in the Look to Michigan campaign. “At the Marsal School, we aim to be a pivotal part of the university’s four global challenges while promoting human well-being,” Giles says. “Living with purpose is vital. We focus on nurturing the whole person rather than solely on academic success. Encouraging human flourishing creates an atmosphere where students are more involved and equipped to face difficulties. By prioritizing character development, self-awareness, and empathy in addition to academics, schools lay the groundwork for students to excel both in their studies and personal lives. This holistic approach sets students up for long-term success.”
Marsal Family School of Education’s Bold Campaign Goals Will Propel this Work Forward
The Marsal School is focusing on four overarching priorities to deliver on the promise of education to create a healthier, more sustainable, civically engaged world. These broad investments will go toward improving opportunities to learn for all people through research and practice; pursuing partnerships and public scholarship; supporting future educators; and elevating the Marsal community.
U-M alumna and donor Carin Ehrenberg (AB ’88) graciously agreed to lead the Dean’s Advisory Council Campaign Committee for the Look to Michigan campaign. “I believe excellent educators are crucial to all four pillars of our campaign because teaching is at the intersection of learning, collaboration, and empathy,” says Ehrenberg. “The Marsal School is focused on teaching the Leaders and Best of the future of education, providing affordable degrees for educators and researchers, and having a measurable, positive, scalable impact on society. By increasing our resources through the Look to Michigan campaign, we will be able to deepen our commitment to both research and practice in creating the educational leaders of the future.
Improving Opportunities to Learn for all People through Research and Practice
For well over a century, the Marsal School has been well regarded as a leader in education research designed to improve how people learn and teach. Today, people across the world look to Marsal to do rigorous research, share findings broadly, engage communities, and help create solutions to the most pressing challenges of our time.
From research on universal preschool to college-level mathematics instruction; youth civic engagement to career readiness; and AI technology in the elementary, secondary, and postsecondary classrooms to higher education access and success, Marsal Education is making a difference in ways that matter to people and communities.
For example, rapid developments in technology such as AI require education researchers to understand its implications for teaching and learning. Marsal researchers need to investigate how emerging AI tools for personalized learning systems and intelligent tutoring are being used by learners and educators; how AI shapes the
impacts on motivation, achievement, and critical thinking skills; and the ethical implications of AI in education, including issues of bias, privacy, and the potential for unequal access.
With the October 16, 2024 public launch of the Eileen Lappin Weiser Center for the Learning Sciences, the Marsal School underscored its leadership role in designing tools and practices that support human development across the lifespan and advance equitable and just learning systems. This center is a hub for discoveries around human sensemaking, curiosity, creativity, and understanding. The center’s work encompasses an extensive set of fields of study that can and should inform learning in all its forms and contexts. This work is important for meeting the needs of all kinds of learners, preparing people for the jobs of the future, and helping people develop understanding across differences. Our newest undergraduate degree program, Learning, Equity, and Problem Solving for the Public Good (LEAPS) also offers and expands learning possibilities for university learners. LEAPS blends the world-changing capabilities of a leading
public research university with communitybased learning on the beautiful Marygrove campus in Detroit. During the first year, students live and learn together in Detroit as a cohort before defining individualized concentrations toward future careers. LEAPS students learn how to support people to work together effectively to create change by developing strong collaboration, communication, and leadership skills.
Pursuing Partnerships and Public Scholarship
The Marsal School is committed to partnerships with schools and communities to collaborate on advancing the goals of those communities and schools, and to provide supportive environments to prepare teachers, school leaders, policymakers, and researchers.
The school has two powerful and long-term institutional partnerships with public school districts in Michigan. One is the Mitchell Scarlett Huron Teaching and Learning Collaborative. The multifaceted nature of this partnership allows Marsal faculty and students to work shoulder to shoulder with classroom teachers and school administrators to create transformative, inclusive, and just learning opportunities.
The second robust and long-standing partnership is with the Detroit Public Schools Community District, Starfish Family Services, the Marygrove Conservancy, and the Kresge Foundation—the Detroit P-20 Partnership. Together, this public-private collaboration created the Marygrove Learning Community (MLC) in 2019, which features a prenatal-through-early-childhood education center, a K-12 public school, the Michigan Education Teaching School, and a wide range of health and human services. On the MLC campus, families have the uncommon opportunity to send their children to schools
with an evidence-based, aligned curriculum from infancy through high school. Children and youth benefit from a holistic approach to education, one that accounts for their health and developmental needs while providing outstanding academic opportunities. Nearly every University of Michigan school and college has engaged in the work of the Marygrove Learning Community under Marsal’s leadership. From engineering faculty working with Marsal to co-develop a high school robotics curriculum to the School of Dentistry establishing a clinic to serve the school children, teachers, and neighborhood members, the university’s powerful interdisciplinarity has come together with the indomitable spirit of an amazing Detroit neighborhood, all in the service of children and youth learning. Imagine the model we can provide together for the state, the nation, and globe through these partnerships as we transform education to serve all learners.
Supporting Future Educators
growing a strong and stable society. “It is vitally important to start educating children in preschool and maintain our commitments to high-quality education through upper school,” Marsal says. “Unfortunately the nation does not have enough well-prepared teachers to reach this goal, but the Marsal Family School of Education is committed to changing that reality through the Teach Blue Commitment, in which the school commits to financially supporting Michigan students who commit themselves to the teaching profession.”
To do this work, we must educate the future practitioners and leaders of education opportunity, including PreK-12 teachers and leaders, college and university leaders and educators, and education researchers and policy makers. The Marsal School prepares education professionals who bring their expertise into PreK-12 schools, higher education institutions, informal learning settings (such as museums, libraries, and summer camps), research think tanks, businesses, and government agencies.
As an education alumna, parent of an education alumna, and longtime donor to the school, Kathleen Marsal (ABEd ’72, TeachCert ’72) advocates for greater public recognition of the role that access to high-quality education for all plays in
The growing shortage of well-prepared teachers in the U.S. unequally affects children around the country and is a danger to the health of our society. As fewer people are entering the teaching profession and disparities in educational opportunities across our nation continue to widen, Marsal faculty remain dedicated to preparing teachers and other child-serving professionals, such as school leaders, tutors, and more, at the very highest level. We know that a well-prepared teacher makes the greatest difference in a child’s learning life; imagine what schools full of truly prepared teachers might be able to do to transform education. And our students at Marsal are truly prepared. They learn and practice how people learn most effectively, drawing from the latest education evidence. They learn and practice how to teach children to read, using all the dimensions of reading sciences. They learn and practice how to engage even the youngest children in meaningful scientific inquiry. They learn and practice how to serve children from a range of backgrounds with equitable and inclusive teaching practices. Marsal students of teaching learn and practice so much more. We need to recruit more teacher candidates to Marsal and continue to support them throughout their careers so that they can serve our nation’s children.
With the challenge of the PreK-12 teacher shortage requiring creative and multifaceted solutions, the Teach Blue Initiative features prominently in our campaign as a key strategy to elevate teachers’ incredible contributions to society. The vision of Teach Blue is to introduce opportunities and resources that work together to support educators at all stages of their careers. As leaders in teacher education with robust school and community
Upon graduation, newly certified teachers can apply to be teaching residents at the Michigan Education Teaching School, housed at The School at Marygrove. The teaching school is based on the idea of a teaching hospital, used in the field of medicine. At the Teaching School, everyone shares two goals: Educate children and educate their teachers and other child-serving professionals.
The final dimension of Teach Blue is to elevate those who have stayed in the profession.
“I believe excellent educators are crucial to all four pillars of our campaign because teaching is at the intersection of learning, collaboration, and empathy” Carin Ehrenberg
partnerships, we are uniquely poised to meet the prevailing challenges to the profession through a fresh approach to recruitment and retention.
Teach Blue begins with helping people discover the profession and see themselves as teachers. “We start with thinking early about how to recruit people into the profession,” Dean Moje says. “We’re thinking about ways that we can help middle and high school students consider a future in teaching, but also about how to reach adults who want to change their profession.”
The next dimension of Teach Blue is to invest in scholarships and other forms of support for tuition and cost of attendance. The Teach Blue Commitment offers funding packages that significantly offset the cost of education degrees—up to and including tuition-free degrees—for many students seeking teacher certification. We want to be able to pledge to prospective students that if they commit to the teaching profession, then we will commit to them by supporting their Michigan Marsal education financially for all four years.
In 2024, the first cohort of Teach Blue Fellows returned to campus to work with faculty to study “problems of practice.” The Marsal School celebrates the career accomplishments of these teachers and engages them in helping us recruit and educate the next generation.
Elevating the Marsal Community
The final funding priority of the Marsal Look to Michigan campaign is to support a healthy and vibrant learning environment that elevates its members. As we grow with our freshman admission of LEAPS students and more and more future teachers come on board, Marsal Education seeks to provide physical spaces that enable the work just described. Just as a home is more than four walls, the growing Marsal School community needs a physical environment that supports ambitious work, is accessible and inclusive, and is welcoming to the university students, faculty, staff, and community members who enter.
We have an amazing space that stands as a tribute to the legacy of our forebears such as John Dewey or our University Elementary
and High School leaders, teachers, and PreK-12 students who walked these halls from 1924 to 1968. But we need to renovate. Indeed, we are bursting at the seams and must expand our physical footprint to make more accessible space for the work of our exciting future. We need to make use of the beautiful space in our open-air courtyard. We need to add an elevator. We need a space for community building that can support our students, staff, and faculty in thriving as they do the demanding work of providing the highest quality education for all. We need a space that reflects our stature and our prominence both at the university and in society. Education matters and having the space to educate well is essential.
Marsal’s contributions to humanity and society are limitless. Harnessing the power of research, practice, and policy—not as separate and complementary but as deeply intertwined—the Marsal School is leading the way forward in partnership with the many communities we serve.
“I invite everyone to partner with us in this work,” says Dean Moje. “‘Look to Michigan’ is more than a slogan for this campaign: Just as we see ‘leaders and best’ not as a boast, but as a charge to lead and be our best in the service of others, we see Look to Michigan as a call to action. Marsal will answer that call, with your support.
The Marsal Family School of Education has a vital role to play in fulfilling the goals of the university’s Vision 2034 and, in doing so, propelling human progress justly and equitably.” ■
C HAMPIONS for E DUCATION
new g ifts, Endowments, and Bequests
Emil and Julie Michael created a gift fund to provide books and other resources for the K-12 libraries at The School at Marygrove. Located on the former campus of Marygrove College in Detroit, The School at Marygrove is a public elementary and secondary school that is part of the Marygrove Learning Community (MLC). The MLC is the result of a private-public partnership between the Marsal Family School of Education, the Detroit Public Schools Community District, and the Kresge Foundation that provides education and family services that support the success of Detroit children from prenatal through college and career.
The School at Marygrove includes three beautiful library spaces across its two buildings: two newly renovated spaces in the elementary school and a refinished space in the middle and high school building that maintains the original architecture and built-in shelving of the previous college library. The MLC staff lacked the robust book budget required to build a K-12 school library collection from scratch. The private-public partnership supporting the MLC proved crucial, providing an invitation for donors like the Michaels to help close the gap. Libraries, of course, are more than warehouses for books. At their best, libraries—especially those serving young people—are welcoming, inclusive, playful, and joyful invitations to reading, writing, connecting, learning, and changemaking. Libraries do more than put books into the hands of children; they support children in growing their identities as readers.
The vision for the developing libraries at The School at Marygrove strives toward these goals. At the elementary school, a picture book library also labeled a “healing space” features a carefully curated collection of books selected to affirm and honor children’s identities and the diverse experiences, stories, and wonders they deserve to experience in and through reading. Shelves with labels like “Gardens grow community,” “Indigenous stories matter,” and “We let ourselves grieve,” group books together in ways that invite children and their teachers to access books that support their academic learning in a place-based curriculum, as well as their social, emotional, and mental health and wellbeing.
A second floor elementary library for chapter books just opened to children this school year. Both library spaces include flexible and comfortable
“Those of us at the Marsal Family School of Education who staff this partnership are lucky enough to be reminded daily, in our interactions with Detroit children and families, that they deserve the world.”
Carla Shalaby
opportunities for children to cuddle comfortably with books, stuffed animals, and friends. The vision is for children to create reading memories that allow them to connect to themselves, to others, and to the world both within and beyond the city of Detroit.
The middle and high school library, designed to serve grades 6–12, is growing its collection of both fiction and nonfiction, with a particularly robust collection of books by Black authors and those featuring Detroit stories and history. Through a QR code posted at the doorway, young people are invited to recommend books that they believe would strengthen the collection. Making sure the students feel a sense of ownership and belonging over the titles provided to them and their peers is a key part of the vision and mission of the library.
Carla Shalaby, lead MLC partner at the elementary school, says, “Those of us at the Marsal Family School of Education who staff this partnership are lucky enough to be reminded daily, in our interactions
with Detroit children and families, that they deserve the world. What better way to give it to them than in and through the power of books? Gifts from private donors like the Michaels allow us to say to these students that there are people literally all over this country who believe that access to books is a pillar of a great education—a right—and they are stepping up to promise that right.”
“Carla’s dedication to her students, their families, and to her profession as a whole has always been an inspiration to us,” says Julie Michael. “When she sounded the call for help in filling the school’s library shelves, we knew we wanted to do more. So often, the less-than-exciting items are the last to be funded but in this case, that was the software that enabled the students to check out a book. We wanted to ensure that the books and stories Carla has so carefully gathered could make their way into the homes of these children. With this gift, we hope that becomes a possibility.”
C HAMPIONS for E DUCATION
For four decades, Jane (BSEd ’67) and Bill (BS ’66) Stocklin have included U-M among the organizations they support. As Jane considered how they could make the most impact through their giving, she decided to focus on making larger, strategic gifts to fewer organizations.
Although living 2,000 miles away from Ann Arbor, the west coast couple has stayed connected with the university. As proud Wolverines, they love hearing about the latest ways that the U-M community is making a difference. And they have a deep regard for educators.
In spring 2024, the Stocklins established the Jane Warnke Stocklin and William Stocklin Scholarship Fund to support undergraduate and graduate students with financial need preparing to teach in the elementary grades.
Jane explains, “I have two grown sons and when I think of their teachers in K-6 who were loving, competent, encouraging, fun, inspiring, and who embraced each of my children for the evolving individuals they presented at the time, I am filled with gratitude. I would love to fund a million of those teachers. All children deserve that from their classroom teachers.”
Jane isn’t the only one in the family who recognizes the power of a great education. The inclusion of her maiden name in the title of the scholarship is a tribute to her parents who she says worked very hard and were dedicated to sending Jane and her sister to college. They both attended the University of Michigan. “They were very proud of this and I know they would be very proud of this scholarship,” Jane says. Jane’s sister
“It
has also funded scholarships at U-M, including at the Marsal Family School of Education.
The Stocklins were eager to make a gift at a time when the Marsal School offered a gift matching initiative to augment the size of scholarship donations.
“It will give me great pleasure to know I am helping a very specific person realize their dream of becoming a teacher and dedicating themselves
to making a difference for young children. I also hope my gift will help them internalize the significance of the impact they can make each day, not only for a child but for the family of that child,” Jane says. “You never know if what you do or what you say will remain and make a huge difference in the years to come. That is the power of a good teacher.”
Like Son, Like Father
how a recent graduate’s gift inspired his father to do the same for the Marsal Family School of Education
as a newly admitted student to the University of Michigan, Drew Arnson (BBA ’22) was excited to come to Ann Arbor and visit his older sister Kate (BSE ’17, MSE ’18) on campus. He already knew he wanted to study business when he enrolled in the fall, but that weekend, one of his sister’s friends raved about a course she was taking at the Marsal School, Education 118 – Introduction to Education: Schooling and Multicultural Society, a course that introduces students to the role of education in today’s world. Raised by parents who consider literacy one of their core family values, Arnson’s interest was piqued.
“I applied to business schools out of high school for my undergrad, but I always viewed that as a place to get a set of skills that could be transferable to other work,” says Arnson. Recognizing what an enviable position he was in as a senior—to apply anywhere he wanted, and study anything he wanted—clarified his long-term goals. “I was like, that’s it: I want to help other people get to where I am right now and really be in a position to take advantage of what higher education in the U.S. provides.”
As it happened, the Marsal School was in the process of launching the Education for Empowerment Minor. Arnson was one of
the first undergraduates to enroll in the minor, which is designed for students across the university who are interested in examining the critical role of education in building our individual and collective capacity to advance the aims of justice and democracy in society. For the program’s internship component, he worked with professor Nell Duke, conducting research to
donations—an opportunity Arnson wanted to seize as the year drew to a close.
A year-end appeal from U-M spurred him to reflect on all that Michigan had given him and made him think “I should probably get on track with giving back as well.” Although Arnson earned his degree from the Ross School of Business, he says “the large impacts I had seen in my undergrad career were really
“I thought, ‘What is something that will not only help Michigan students, but the broader community?’ The Teaching School at The School at Marygrove is really the perfect intersection of those things.” Drew Arnson
provide evidence for the recommendations she was making to the State of Michigan’s PreK–12 Literacy Commission, on which she served. His capstone seminar was taught by Dean Elizabeth Birr Moje, who was in the process of establishing the Michigan Education Teaching School at the new Detroit P-20 Partnership school, The School at Marygrove. Featuring a teacher residency that supports novice teachers through their first three years in the profession, the Teaching School draws from elements of the medical school model.
After he graduated, Arnson moved to New York to pursue a position with the Huron Consulting Group, a top firm that specializes in educational consulting. Working on the Strategy & Operations team within the broader Education & Research practice, Arnson has had the opportunity to serve higher education clients across the country. (He’s even been part of a project for his alma mater!)
“I really love being in the university space. Even when the work days are hard and busy, it is better to think that we’re helping a university, which means that more people will graduate and more research will get done, rather than we’re just going to help a client sell more of their product.”
In addition to enjoying his work, the company offers a program that matches employee charitable
more connected to the Marsal Family School of Education. I thought, ‘What is something that will not only help Michigan students, but the broader community?’ The Teaching School at The School at Marygrove is really the perfect intersection of those things.”
“Drew in particular has always been very good at forward thinking,” says his father, Eric Arnson (BGS ’78), who like all his children graduated from U-M. He is proud of his son’s sense of purpose, which he has watched develop over the years and carry through to his current professional role. When he asked his kids where the family might make a worthwhile donation at Christmastime, Drew made a pitch for supporting the Teaching School at The School at Marygrove. Enthused, his father took him up on it, increasing the Arnson family’s total impact.
“There’s a lot of research that shows new teachers are struggling, and that it’s hard to even get people to choose the profession of teaching,” says Drew Arnson. “Hopefully the residency model at The School at Marygrove continues to expand and become a nationwide standard for how we train teachers. I will continue to follow it, and hope to continue supporting it, because it is so practical and useful—not only for the U-M students who become teaching residents, but also for the students they’ll end up reaching.” ■
To submit class notes, update your contact information, communicate with the editor, or connect with the Marsal Family School of Education, please visit marsal.umich.edu/magazine.
Dr. Adam Aaron (AB ’14, Teach Cert ’14) received his PhD in history from the University of Tennessee. His dissertation is titled “The Sons of Melisende: Baldwin III, Amalric, and Kingship in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, 1143–1174 CE.” Aaron lives in Gainesville, Florida, with his wife Reina Saco (AM ’14) and his son Joseph.
Dr. Cassie L. Barnhardt (AB ’97, DBA ’97, PhD ’12) was promoted to full professor at the University of Iowa in July of 2024. Presently, she is the principal investigator of a five-year project titled “Private Sector Partnerships to Strengthen Higher Education,” which is supported by USAID in the Republic of Kosovo.
Earlier this year, Byron D. Brooks (AM ’22) released his book, The Hood Needs Love,Too!: A Breath of Liberation &ACry of Resistance. This powerful work delves into the struggles and triumphs of marginalized communities, shedding light on systemic issues while offering a message of hope, unity, and empowerment. With a focus on collective strength, spiritual resilience, and economic empowerment, Brooks challenges stereotypes and
inspires community-driven change. The Hood Needs Love,Too! is a call to action for those committed to building a more just and equitable future.
David Coffey (MS ’92) wrote and published the book Designing Math Adventures with his wife, Kathryn Coffey. The book uses design thinking principles to support K-8 teachers in planning and implementing lessons that meet their students’ mathematical needs. It is available as an e-book or a paperback through Amazon.
Bruce Galbraith (BMus ’62, TeachCert ’62, AM ’63) says that his degree from the Marsal Family School of Education was the perfect credential for his work as director of the Interlochen Arts Academy in northern Michigan, and as headmaster of Park Tudor School, Indianapolis.
Ann-Nora Hirami (AB ’90, TeachCert ’90) retired in June 2023, after 23 years teaching sociology and U.S. history at Plymouth High School (she also taught at Salem High School) with the Plymouth-Canton Community Schools.
Dr. Alexandra Miletta (PhD ’03) published a book for new teachers, Teach with Confidence: Five Domains for Managing Life in Classrooms (Rowman & Littlefield), which aims to inspire new teachers to trust their ability to reflect and grow, and have an improved sense of their own agency in managing dissonance. For more information: teach-withconfidence.com
Dr. Christine Quince (ABEd ’14, TeachCert ’14, AM ’17, PhD ’22), threetime School of Education alumna, returned to the Marsal School to share her unique journey from the University of Michigan to UC Berkeley with current students. Speaking with Thomas Drake’s master’s students, Quince shared the importance of Marsal School mentorship, discipline, rest, and remaining true to her goal of improving Black students’ classroom experiences.
The digital humanities research that Dr. Kelly L. Wheeler (CertGrad ’22, PhD ’22) conducted as part of her dissertation in the Joint Program in English and Education is now live on theswastikacounter.org. Tracking antisemitism and harm across the United States, the Swastika Counter Project aims to educate the general public about the targets, circulation, and intensity of antisemitic signs on the streets of the United States.
University of Michigan Regents
Jordan B. Acker, Huntington Woods
Michael J. Behm, Grand Blanc
Mark J. Bernstein, Ann Arbor
Paul W. Brown, Ann Arbor
Sarah Hubbard, Okemos
Denise Ilitch, Bingham Farms
Ron Weiser, Ann Arbor
Katherine E. White, Ann Arbor
Santa J. Ono (ex officio)
The University of Michigan, as an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer, complies with all applicable federal and state laws regarding nondiscrimination and affirmative action. The University of Michigan is committed to a policy of equal opportunity for all persons and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, marital status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, disability, religion, height, weight, or veteran status in employment, educational programs and activities, and admissions. Inquiries or complaints may be addressed to the Senior Director for Institutional Equity, and Title IX/ Section 504/ADA Coordinator, Office of Institutional Equity, 2072 Administrative Services Building, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1432, 734-763-0235, TTY 734-647-1388. For other University of Michigan information call 734-764-1817.
